Scientific research at a certain university was supported in part

Scientific research at a certain university was supported in part by an annual grant from a major foundation. When the university's physics department embarked on weapons-related research, the foundation, which has purely humanitarian mission, threatened to cancel its grant. The university then promised that none of the foundation's money would be used for the weapons research, whereupon the foundation withdrew its threat, concluding that the weapons research would not benefit from the foundation's grant.

Which of the following describes a flaw in the reasoning underlying the foundation's conclusion?

A) It overlooks the possibility that the availability of the foundation's money for humanitarian uses will allow the university to redirect other funds from humanitarian uses to weapons research.
B) It overlooks the possibility that the physics department's weapons research is not the only one of the university's research activities with other than purely humanitarian purposes.
C) It overlooks the possibility that the university made its promise specifically in order to induce the foundation to withdraw its threat.
D) It confuses the intention of not using a sum of money for a particular purpose with the intention of not using that sum of money at all.
E) It assumes that if the means to achieve an objective are humanitarian in character, then the objective is also humanitarian in character.




Source: PrepTest 7, February 1993 LSAT, Section 4, Question 11